where's my plot, becky?
Nov. 15th, 2025 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isunshowerhi hello it's me back to write another incoherent and conflicted take on a becky chambers book
record of a spaceborn few is interesting to me as someone who studied cultural anthropology. it's not a terrible take on the discipline-ghuh'loloan, or however you spell her name, is definitely participating in the local culture, asking questions, and noting how her presence changes the behaviors of The Locals. however she does then immediately use her influence to change the local culture and then becky frames that as being a good thing where in actuality (i say, a citizen of the imperial core) it's more complicated than that. not really my main issue with this book though--not a significant issue at all really, just, fascinating to me as an outsider, sci-fi take on a discipline i know more than nothing about. one of these days i will make my boyfriend's sister, a trained archaeologist, read it and see what she thinks.
nah, but like. i get what she was trying to go for here. a snapshot of life in a specific place at a specific time; exploring questions about cultural change, transitional periods, diaspora and homecoming, and coming of age. but never did it feel like the stakes were actually all that high. i was into kip's story a bit, i enjoyed isabel's narration even if i wasn't compelled by her mini plot, but i think actually chambers did her book a disservice by killing off sawyer and using him as a plot point. the questions about homecoming, and making new traditions, and finding belonging in a new-old-new place, that was the story i was most interested in and the one that seemed the most like it was going to Go Somewhere and Say Something. i wanted to watch him settle in!! i wanted to watch him grit his teeth and suffer through sanitation duty, and realize that he was working with space pirates and then get a chance to actually DO something about it! i liked the second book in this verse because it felt like it had stakes and a plot, but this book really could have done with fewer pov characters and fewer storylines, a little more focus.
record of a spaceborn few is interesting to me as someone who studied cultural anthropology. it's not a terrible take on the discipline-ghuh'loloan, or however you spell her name, is definitely participating in the local culture, asking questions, and noting how her presence changes the behaviors of The Locals. however she does then immediately use her influence to change the local culture and then becky frames that as being a good thing where in actuality (i say, a citizen of the imperial core) it's more complicated than that. not really my main issue with this book though--not a significant issue at all really, just, fascinating to me as an outsider, sci-fi take on a discipline i know more than nothing about. one of these days i will make my boyfriend's sister, a trained archaeologist, read it and see what she thinks.
nah, but like. i get what she was trying to go for here. a snapshot of life in a specific place at a specific time; exploring questions about cultural change, transitional periods, diaspora and homecoming, and coming of age. but never did it feel like the stakes were actually all that high. i was into kip's story a bit, i enjoyed isabel's narration even if i wasn't compelled by her mini plot, but i think actually chambers did her book a disservice by killing off sawyer and using him as a plot point. the questions about homecoming, and making new traditions, and finding belonging in a new-old-new place, that was the story i was most interested in and the one that seemed the most like it was going to Go Somewhere and Say Something. i wanted to watch him settle in!! i wanted to watch him grit his teeth and suffer through sanitation duty, and realize that he was working with space pirates and then get a chance to actually DO something about it! i liked the second book in this verse because it felt like it had stakes and a plot, but this book really could have done with fewer pov characters and fewer storylines, a little more focus.
